Material displacement apparatuses, such as excavating buckets found on construction, mining, and other earth moving equipment, often include replaceable wear portions such as earth engaging teeth. These are often removably attached to larger base structures, such as excavating buckets, and come into abrasive, wearing contact with the earth or other material being displaced. For example, excavating tooth assemblies provided on digging equipment, such as excavating buckets and the like, typically comprise a relatively massive adapter portion which is suitably anchored to the forward bucket lip. The adapter portion typically includes a forwardly projecting nose. A replaceable tooth typically includes a rear-facing cavity that releasably receives the adapter nose. To retain the tooth on the adapter nose, generally aligned transverse openings may be formed on both the tooth and the adapter nose, and a suitable connector structure is driven into and forcibly retained within the aligned openings to releasably anchor the replaceable tooth on its associated adapter nose.
During normal operations, the tooth experiences loading in multiple directions. If the tooth is not positioned on the nose in a stable manner, the loads experienced by the tooth can cause additional wear on the adapter. A need accordingly exists for an improved adapter nose and corresponding opening in the tooth.